Is iGaming The Future Of Lotteries After The Pandemic?

Is iGaming The Future Of Lotteries After The Pandemic?

Posted: Monday, Dec 07,2020 | Time: 06:12 am | Edited by: The Lottery Lab Staff

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven significant changes in many parts of our lives, but the lottery industry has proved to be innovative and resilient. Pandemic lockdowns have forced all of us to adapt to our daily lives. Much of this adaptation has accelerated technological advancements as home offices become the norm for work and classrooms.

For over a decade, many of us have had online access. This service has essentially been a luxury that allowed us to live more comfortably and reduce unnecessary trips to the store, but how many of us considered what this capability really meant? Owing to the current COVID-19 pandemic, what was once simply a source of convenience has now become an indispensable part of our lives. The same adaptation goes for the lottery industry.

With the spread of Coronavirus, the lottery sector saw a growing impact on sales.

According to the Public Gaming International’s July/August issue 2020, “the long-term strategic planning of both lotteries and their well-timed choice to focus more on the digital channel at the beginning of 2020 resulted in positive momentum and a strong first half of 2020.”

As traditional in-person ticket sales experienced contractions, iGaming has become a larger part of lottery ticket sales both in real terms and as a proportion of all sales. Even though many state lottery commissions were forced to curtail their retail sales at the start of the outbreak, the members of WLA with iGaming platforms reported, 10% to 30% increase in online sales during the lockdown. Other reported statistics suggest that online gaming is compensating for dipping retail lottery sales as a result of COVID-19.

While digital transformation has emerged as a topmost priority for many business sectors in the past few years, state lottery regulators have been at the forefront of identifying benefits and embracing change. This has been particularly important for the coming Holiday Season where it is important to maintain safety as well as profitability.

Let’s have a look at some of the state lotteries for whom digitalization has proved to be truly “game-changing”.

The Kentucky Lottery

The Kentucky Lottery took the digital advantage and shifted its focus to iLottery. They launched their new Instant Play Games and offered higher payouts. These attractive payouts resulted in a 37% sales increase by mid-March, 57% by the end of May, and drove up a 60% boost for digital draw-based games and around 260% in Instant Play sales.

The Georgia Lottery Corporation

The collaboration between IGT and the Georgia Lottery Corporation turned out to be well-timed for the lottery. Prior to the pandemic, Georgia Lottery had already developed plans to upgrade its digital platform and increase marketing support. The strategy resulted in an increase of 155% in traditional draw-based games, 330% in Georgia’s e-instants brand, Diggi Games, and 115% in digital Keno.

The Rhode Island Lottery

Recently, the Rhode Island Lottery launched a new iLottery solution which revolutionizes the Lottery playing experience for players, allowing them to play Keno and e-instant games from their mobile devices. They also included a digital wallet, where winners can have winnings automatically transferred to their accounts.

Concluding...

In addition to these states, the California State Lottery, Minnesota Lottery, Texas lottery, Iowa Lottery, Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, Hoosier Lottery, and many more have started following the digital leaders and striving to provide the ultimate lottery experience to its players and revive their dipping revenue.

With Christmas approaching, this is the perfect time for the state lotteries to find ways to accelerate their lost revenue. Switching to digitalization will help the global lottery industry recover and benefit from this truly transformative period. There’s no going back to the way of doing business from here. For the Lottery industry to prevail in these trying times, it is essential that they do not rest on their earned profits. Instead, they have to attract new players while maintaining their loyal customers. That requires a deep understanding of customer habits and needs.

Digitalization is a major advantage for lottery players themselves. Players can experience a whole new world of lottery games to enrich the traditional over-the-counter lottery excitement. With lottery commissions offering better payouts, the opportunities for systematically beating the lottery are better. Plus players don’t have to go through the hassle of visiting a convenience store or retailers to buy tickets. Make the most of this Holiday season by downloading applications for your favorite lottery and become a lottery winner while lounging on your couch!

Technology has proved to be a vital element in getting us through this pandemic crisis, from work to school our whole family has connected with just a few clicks. The evolving digital terrain is changing our culture, outlook, and habits. This digital transformation is changing the way we perceive the world we live in!